My local Tea shop sells a lot of mini tuochas and even claims that some of his "clients" only purchase mini tuochas. They sell variety packs with a maybe 10 different mini tuocha varieties. The store claims that they are good for lowering triglycerides and blood glucose levels.

My Mom, Aunt and myself all purchased a sampler a piece (about 30 mini tuochas) and both my Mom and Aunt tried one, and said it tasted like horse manure and gave them all to me.

Granted they do kind of taste like horse manure, but kind of in a good way of that is possible.

I like to brew them up really strong and drink them instead of coffee.

Kind of thinking about ordering some more mini tuochas from Yunnan Sourcing, as they have a very large selection of them. And even with shipping they are much cheaper than what my local store carries. And they are the same exact mini tuochas.

Should I even bother with the Mini tuochas, or would it be better to get some cakes? Basically I am looking for a coffee replacement to use in my tea thermos at work.

It is not that mini tuo cha is that bad, but it will never be that good. Most high quality puer is put into other forms than mini tuo. That does not mean that there are not some very drinkable mini tuos out there. Which comes to the more important point:

JakubT wrote:Basically I am looking for a coffee replacement to use in my tea thermos at work.

There are plenty of mini tuos that can do that job! I have different quality ranges for what I drink, example, what I drink at the office or in a casual, large cup of puer is way different than what I use if I am sitting down to a session on a sunday afternoon. Some days you want lobster, some days you want a peanut butter sandwich. If you are in the office and looking for something to sip on while you work, mini tuo will be convenient (you don't have to chisel leaves out of a brick that you keep stored in your desk) and economical.

I am sure somebody on here can give better advice on which mini tuos to buy than me, just tossing in my two cents about the broad topic.

chrisd wrote:Should I even bother with the Mini tuochas, or would it be better to get some cakes? Basically I am looking for a coffee replacement to use in my tea thermos at work.

I would recommend something like this brick over at Puerhshop. I got a sample in an order awhile back and brewed it up in a 4oz gaiwan (so that's 8g in 4oz, which is a bit stronger than I normally do), and it was extremely nice -- it had a depth that sort of reminded me of coffee (but, take that with a grain of salt as I'm not a coffee drinker). And it's a great deal at 200g for $7, I picked up a couple in my latest order...

Oh, and just to be clear, when I say I brewed up 8g in 4oz, that means I had about 10 cups of 4oz each over the course of an hour.

I don't know about the "best" but I have a box of this that I like very much:[url]http://s.taobao.com/search?q=%CD%C1%C1%D6%C2%C3%D3%CE%E3%FB&commend=all&ssid=s5-e&search_type=item&atype=&filterFineness=[/url]It's Tu Lin factory's 2009 product made of a mix of left over broken leaves from an earlier year (said to be 2005). I think it's very good even compared with many regular size tuo. Mind you, it's name is "tourist tuo" and I guess they meant to suggest it's convenient to bring along on road trips. Another mini sheng I like very much is made by a small producer. They name the tuo "weight loss" tuo with a stamp of "weight loss" on the wrap Can't judge a tea by its name

I found a website that has some interesting looking "Certified Organic" and "Fair Trade Certified" ripe mini-tuochas. And even though those are obviously good qualities to have in a tea, they are a little expensive.

A pound runs for $54.99. and if the mini-tuochas are 5 grams each, this puts the price at right around .57 cents per mini-tuocha, which is about double the going rate of other mini-tuochas on the market.

Would you all consider the pricetag to be worth it for a product that is certified organic and fair trade, or would the traditional mini-tuochas from other vendors be the way to go?

I as because I am searching for a good mini tuocha to consistently drink at work instead of coffee.

Thats probably a good idea. But unfortunately I am a newbie and only have a small porcelain teapot to brew in, and a coule of tea thermos's.

I'm looking for something that I can easily brew up at work (recently got switched to the overnight watch) and want something that I can easily brew at work in a tea thermos. My water will be filtered, boiled and brought along with me in my stanley thermos.

I've been drinking some mini tuochas that I got at tea shop. The usual suspects, Laocang, CNNP, rice scented e.t.c., and they have been working, but are obviously not the best quality.

Would cakes just be the best option? I have found three at puerhshop.com that look really good, while I was shopping for mini-tuochas.